TELEVISION REVIEW; Caught in the Trap Of Science Run Amok

Here's a new television series with a mission statement. In the pilot episode of ''Strange World,'' to be seen tonight on ABC, the central character, Dr. Paul Turner, works up a righteous head of steam and declares: ''Why are people more afraid of aliens from outer space than they are of the monsters we're creating ourselves? From genetically engineered animals, viruses . . .''

He's too excited to complete the list, or perhaps to limit the scope of future plot lines. But a moment later he announces: ''Science is changing a lot faster than we expected. Faster than anyone realizes.''

There. A warning has been issued: You've been wasting your time on ''The X-Files.'' The fault, dear viewer, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Earthbound science has run amok, and Turner (played by Tim Guinee), whose life is threatened by a devastating man-made disease he acquired in the Persian Gulf war, is pledging to uncover its excesses.

Network television, on the other hand, is not changing any faster than expected. So, especially in the pilot, this new entry pays further homage to the addictive ''X-Files,'' a show with which ''Strange World'' obviously hopes to share an audience. The two already share some genetic material. (That sci-fi lingo burrows right into your brain, doesn't it?) One of the new show's creators, Howard Gordon, was an ''X-Files'' producer and writer.

So here's another warning: Although the drama that Mr. Gordon and his colleagues offer tonight borrows the ominous darkness and portentous music of ''The X-Files'' and provides a dogged hero, mysterious villains and conspiracies within conspiracies within conspiracies, it does not match the other show's imagination. More damaging, it lacks the deadpan wit that keeps ''The X-Files'' teetering disorientingly between spoof and melodrama.

And one more problem: ABC has scheduled four more ''Strange World'' episodes that will pre-empt ''N.Y.P.D. Blue'' for the remaining Tuesdays in March, starting tomorrow, thus running the risk of alienating another army of potential fans.

Still, viewers who give ''Strange World'' a chance may find its mind games satisfying. Tonight's drama introduces Turner, who agrees to work for some kind of hazily defined Pentagon agency that battles medical miscreants and other scientific villains. But there's a twist. The kind of evil network that Turner has pledged to fight is keeping him alive.

In the pilot, Turner watches his old Army buddy, who contracted the dread disease with him, die from it. Turner lives only because a shadowy woman appears periodically to give him a vial of serum. Who is she? Whom is she working for? What does she expect from Turner? If you think you might wonder about the answers, then you might fall under the spell of ''Strange World.''

In addition to Mr. Guinee, the series's regular cast includes three women: Kristin Lehman as Turner's love interest, Dr. Sydney MacMillan; Saundra Quarterman as his boss, Maj. Lynne Reese, and Vivian Wu as the woman with the life-saving drug. All four actors seem to be appropriately professional; they approach the material with unremitting earnestness.

Tonight's tale establishes the premise and has something to do with cloning humans. In tomorrow's show, which seems a bit less ponderous in tone, the focus is on a medical conspiracy that hides its true designs while claiming to be about surrogate motherhood.

And what are the true designs of ''Strange World''? To return to the network in its own permanent time slot? That's not beyond imagining. But, like its hero, this show risks a quick demise unless it finds a few doses of magic.

STRANGE WORLD

ABC, tonight at 10

(Channel 7 in New York)

Created by Howard Gordon and Tim Kring; Mr. Gordon, executive producer; Manny Coto, co-executive producer; pilot written by Mr. Gordon and Mr. Kring; directed by Mick Jackson. Produced by Teakwood Lane Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television.